Do you Know About Sexual Assault and Harassment?

Table of Contents

What is Sexual Assault?

Sexual assault is any form of sexual act or contact with another individual without the person’s approval or consent.
Sexual assault can occur through physical force or threats of harm or condition when the attacker dosage the target person with heavy drugs or alcohol as part of the physical attack.
Sexual assault includes rape and sexual coercion.
Sexual assault may be done by someone outsider, close friends/relatives or even an intimate partner.

There are various forms of sexual assault prevailing in our society and some of them are shortlisted below:

Rape: Sexual interaction against a person’s will
Forcible sodomy: Anal or oral sex against a person’s will
Forcible object penetration: Penetrating someone’s vagina or anus, or causing that person to penetrate her or himself, against that person’s will
Marital rape
Unwanted sexual touching
Sexual contact with minors, whether consensual or not
Incest (Sexual intercourse or sexual intrusion between family members.)
Any unwanted or coerced sexual contact

Other sexual crimes include:

At some point in their lives, it is projected that 35 percent of women globally faced a sexual assault by non-partner (not including sexual; harassment)
In every 73 seconds, an American is sexually assaulted.
People of the age of 12-34 years are at highest risk for rape and sexual assault.
42% of college women who are raped never tell anyone about the assault.
Rape leads to 32,000 pregnancies every year.
In 2017 globally, it is estimated that 87,000 women i.e., more than half (50,000-58 percent) were intentionally killed by intimate partners or family members which also indicates that 137 women across the world are killed by a member of their own family every day.
Current or former intimate partner killed more than a third (30,000) of the women intentionally in 2017
Adult women account for 51 percent of all human trafficking victims detected globally.
Women and girls together account for 71 percent, with girls representing approximately three out of every four child trafficking targets.
Approximately three out of every four trafficked women and girls are trafficked for the resolution of sexual corruption.

Harassment is an unwanted behavior which makes the person feel intimated or humiliated.
Harassment is unwelcome conduct that is based on any of the race, color, religion, sex (including sexual orientation, gender identity, or pregnancy), national origin, older age, disability, or genetic information (including family medical history) etc.
Unwelcome conduct or unwanted behavior could include:
- Written or spoken abuse.
- Offensive emails.
- Physical gestures and facial expressions.
- Tweets or comments on social media and websites.
- Banter, that is offensive.
Harassment takes place where a person engages in unwanted that violates:
- Someone’s dignity or
- Creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading or offensive environment.
Harassment is a serious issue that leads a person to live in fear, embarrassment, low self-esteem, depression, suicidal thoughts, humiliation, retaliation, and ridicule.
Harassment can happen anywhere i.e., workplace, public vehicles, walking, colleges, school, shopping center, etc.
Harassment can be done anyone; either someone outsider, close friends/relatives or even an intimate partner.

In a multi-country study from the Middle East and North Africa, among 40 and 60 per cent of women assumed they had faced street-based sexual harassment (mainly sexual comments, stalking/following, or staring/ogling)
31 percent to 64 percent of men said they had ever carried out such acts. Younger men, men with more education, and men who experienced violence as children were more likely to engage in street sexual harassment.
Results from a national Australian survey show that almost two out of five women (39 percent) aged 15 and older who have been in the workforce in the last five years have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace during that period, compared to one out of four (26 percent) of their male counterparts.

Depression, anxiety, shock, phobias and other mental health issues
Unwanted pregnancy
Sexually transmitted diseases and infections.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Guilt, shame, self-blame
Self-Isolation
Loss of productivity
Increase medical expenses
Fear, distrust, embarrassment
Reproductive health problems
Suicide attempts
Other physical and mental health issues
Higher risk for engaging in behaviors such as smoking, binge drinking, and sexual risk behaviors
Poor self-esteem
Physical inactivity
Alcohol and drug abuse
Self-harm
Develop sexually transmitted diseases and infections
Fear, distrust, embarrassment

Provision of community-based program on gender equity.
Raising the status of women in society through education, employment opportunities.
Family support in open discussions about harassment and violence their children might face in college, school and working environment.
Public enlightenment or clarification on certain myths and the traditional belief that inflames sexual violence in the society or nation.
Self-defense practices provision to the girls in order to protect himself or herself during violence or attack.
Strict rules and regulation against minor violence and counseling so there would be less chance of high assassination or violence, especially against the victim.